The fourth-generation F-16 fighters, after deliveries by Western countries to Kyiv, will be based at Ukrainian airfields. This was announced on May 22 by US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall to military observers.
In an interview with journalists, he clarified that he was referring to weapons that do not belong to NATO.
“If they become part of the Ukrainian Air Force, I assume that they will be in Ukraine,” he answered the question of whether American fighters will be located at the airfields of a NATO member country.
The day before, US President Joe Biden said that he outlined to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky the plans of Western countries to train Ukrainian pilots to pilot the F-16 and other military aircraft.
Zelensky responded by thanking Biden for the US $37 billion in financial aid to Kyiv, and for the new military aid package.
Earlier, on May 20, Assistant to the Head of the White House for National Security Jake Sullivan said that Washington and its allies would decide in the coming months which countries and in what quantity would send F-16 fighter jets to Kiev. Denmark and Great Britain have already expressed their readiness to prepare Ukrainian pilots for work on this type of aircraft.
The West stepped up its military and financial support for Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022 amid the aggravation of the situation in the region due to Ukrainian shelling.
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